*crickets chirping*

Yep, I'm still alive!  Sorry for not posting any goodies lately, but that sure doesn't mean I haven't been making any.  Basically, for the past week and a half, I have been in the lab (aka: kitchen) creating the perfect vegan original chocolate chip cookie for the Beaver Creek, CO cookie competition.  Check it out HERE.  For all your bakers out there, you know how you really have to understand the science of baking in order to be truly original.  Also, it's hard now-a-days to be truly original in anything!  After batches, and batches of cookies, I think I finally created a close to perfect vegan chocolate chip cookie.  They're pretty sick-awesome.  After I see if I made the finals, or not, in the competition, I may post the recipe....or I may not.  Haven't decided if this is to be my signature secret cookie, yet, or not ;-)  Oh, they're so good!  Here's some pics...

Here they are all nakey...

All packed up, and ready to go!

Now for the poopy part of the story...I'm actually not sure they're going to make it to CO.  Here's the deal, when you send packages to the communities in the Vail valley, some mail carriers deliver only to PO Boxes and some mail carriers deliver to physical address...or something like that.  I still don't understand it, but it's totally ridonculous, if you ask me.  I've dealt with this some when trying to mail stuff to my sister up there, but I totally forgot about that in this case.

So here I've got these perfectly Martha Stewart'y packaged cookies all dressed in their Sunday best.  I pack 'em up super tight, and head off yesterday morning to overnight these bad boys.  In typical Claire fashion, I send a text to my mom and sister to brag about my accomplishment and how much I'm going to kick-ass and take names at this contest, and my sister lays the whole "I hope you sent them to the right address according to which carrier you chose..."  Doh!  AHHHH!  Let's just sum it up by saying I didn't follow directions accordingly, and spent the next hour running all over Denton like a crazed baker chasing down my package from one post office to the next hoping to stop my cookies in their tracks, only to discover they were already in another town on their way to CO. I must say, I have a new respect for the speediness of the postal service after this experience!  

Feeling defeated and in despair, I talk to the postmasters here in Denton, Vail, CO, and Avon, CO, and the cookie competition people trying to see what my options are.  At this point, I could care less about the cookie competition...all I care about is the $30+ I spent shipping these suckers overnight all for nothing!  The postmaster in Colorado told me since the cookie competition was going on, my package had a much better chance at making the delivery due to all the similar packages that would be arriving at the post office.  Soooooo, we'll see here pretty soon after I attempt to call the Avon post office and pull another "begging-crazy-lady" to see if my package could possibly find it's proper home.

OK, that's the last time I'm telling that story.  I'm so sick of it!  I'll keep ya posted on the status of my cookies' odyssey'esque journey.  FINGERS CROSSED!